DURHAM, N.C. — Emergency Medical Service departments across the Triangle say they're being slowed down by crowded hospitals as 911 calls hit record levels due to the pandemic.
In other parts of the country, as COVID-19 overwhelms hospital capacity, patients are reportedly having to wait in ambulances for space to open up in emergency rooms.
EMS leaders in Wake, Durham and Orange Counties said while that's not the case in the Triangle, they all agreed it's taking longer to transfer patients into increasingly crowded hospitals.
The impact is highest in Wake County, where EMS responded to a record-breaking 10,000 calls in May, and has set new, higher records each month this summer, according to Wake County EMS Assistant Chief Brian Brooks.
Brooks said average time it takes to check a patient into the ER and get back out on the road used to be between five and 15 minutes. Because ERs are so crowded, it now takes 45 minutes.
The Associated Press, 8/28/2021
SMITHFIELD, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina high school teacher has been sent home for refusing to wear a mask as required by her school district.
Aurora Preston, who teaches at South Johnston High School, said she had worn a face mask in the previous school year, but now doesn’t think they're effective in slowing transmission of COVID-19, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported. Preston argues that it should be her constitutional right to decide whether to wear a face mask.
According to the newspaper, Preston -- an English teacher -- showed up maskless last week for a teacher workday to prepare for the new school year. She was told to stay alone in her classroom for several hours before being sent home. Her husband, Joe, said the Johnston County Public Schools system told his wife that she is on leave without pay. After nine weeks, her job status will be reviewed, he said.
The Johnston County school board voted on July 29 to make face masks optional. But the board voted Aug. 10 to require masks — joining more than three-dozen North Carolina school districts that reversed their decision to make masks optional.
Andrew James, WLOS, 8/25/2021
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The Henderson County Board of Health released a letter to the community Wednesday about the level of COVID-19 spread in the community. “We wanted to release this letter just because these are things that are really important right now for protecting the community’s health,” Board Chair Dr. Maggie Hayes said.
Hayes is worried about Henderson County’s positivity rate, increased hospitalizations and greater demand for ICU beds. In the letter, she asked the community to consider masks and vaccines.
“I think that the sooner we can get more people vaccinated, the sooner we will move out of the pandemic. Truly, I think that vaccines are the key to getting out of the pandemic,” she said.
In Buncombe County, 63% of the population is partially vaccinated and 59% is fully vaccinated. Public Health Director Stacie Saunders said recent data shows that unvaccinated people are 3.5 times more likely to get COVID-19.
Brittany Whitehead, WLOS, 8/27/2021
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — U.S. House Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C. District 11) has officially called on Vice President Kamala Harris and the rest of the U.S. Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Joe Biden from office.
Cawthorn tweeted at 8:36 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 26, that he had formally requested the Cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment.
"Joe Biden does not simply have a pattern of poor decision-making, his mental decline is on full display," Cawthorn's tweet read. "We must not allow this mentally unstable individual to direct our country one second longer."
The 25th Amendment allows a majority of the Cabinet to remove a president who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
I truly believe that he truly believes in nothing.
Thanks for reading and contributing, and batten down those hatches, Ida isn’t fooling around.